Project 2025 | The Direction of Intention

Mint And Magic [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on July 8, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

In folklore, garlic is supposed to ward off evil spirits and, according to Bram Stoker, it is especially useful at repelling vampires. I imagine that the protective properties dissolve once the garlic is sauteed with onions: evil spirits and vampires alike could not possibly be repelled by the intoxicating aroma of garlic and onions.

According to some traditions, mint, in addition to fostering tranquility, also has protective properties. Instead of vampires, mint defends against “negative energies and entities”. Since we in these un-United States are awash in negative energy and ill-intended entities, I am comforted that in our herb garden the mint is exploding out of its pot.

I suppose it is a silver lining to climate change that our summers are hotter and more humid which seems to be a super-steroid for mint growth. I’m considering planting a moat of mint around our house. I’m considering sending mint to all the people I love. It seems increasingly likely that they – and we – will need to fortify ourselves against the rising tide of negative energies and the entities that the republicans recently funded. I am considering wearing a necklace of garlic to ward off Stephen Miller and Russell Vought – the first legitimate vampires I’ve witnessed. Apparently Bram Stoker wasn’t just fictionalizing things.

In magic traditions mint has healing properties and is especially useful in enhancing mental clarity and sharpening focus. It is a calming agent. For these reasons I am pondering the virtues of sending mint to maga. Hey! That’s a catchy phrase for a campaign! Mint-To-Maga. Has there ever been a group of people in the history of humanity that was in greater need of mental clarity and calming down? That would require more mint than currently spills out of our pot but in the recent decimation of green energy in favor of fossil fuels, climate change is guaranteed to roar ahead unimpeded so my sudden mint production need has an unintended boost. After my mint moat is planted I’ll start looking for a farm.

I should have sent them mint before the election. I should have known this administration would suck the life-blood from the very people who voted them into power. Well, I did know but confess that I thought it would take longer to execute. Negative entities move faster than I knew. And, now that I think about it, I should have sent garlic prior to the election though I doubt it would have done any good. Maga seems hellbent on giving their blood to the Nosferatu. By now you’d think they’d have realized that they are being fed a steady diet of red herring and are, themselves, the primary food source of the Project 2025 vampires.

Fattened as they are on lies and gleefully cheering their own demise, I doubt that any amount of garlic can now protect them. It could possibly take a mountain of mint and more than a little bit of magic to calm them enough to reclaim a modicum of mental clarity – but I think it is still worth a last-ditch effort. My Spine-for-Congress campaign was a complete failure and now that their Mega-Murder-Bill is unleashed and aimed directly at the red states – and the rest of us, Mint-for-Maga just might help the red-hat-crew open their eyes before the negative energies suck them – and the rest of us – dry.

read Kerri’s blogpost about MINT

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Filed under: Perspective, Rants, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, garlic, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, life blood, MAGA, mint, negative energy, Project 2025, sarcasm, story, studio melange, the melange, tranquility, vampires | 2 Comments »

Ancient Oak Wisdom [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on April 25, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Oak may live for 1,000 years, although 600 may be more typical on many sites.”

It’s very possible that this oak tree is older than our nation. It stands in a field plowed and prepared for planting, visible from a trail that we recently explored. The trail passes through a stand of ancient oaks, gnarled and twisted with time.

There is wisdom in the oaks, something not found in our leaders who view the world exclusively through the lens of dollars and cents. Power people who play let’s-make-a-deal with the lives of others.

Even though we knew it was coming, even though it was a trumpeted intention in the fascist blueprint, Project 2025, the sale and privatization of our public lands for short-term profit has arrived like a surprise unwelcome visitor on our doorstep:

“Elon Musk is now effectively in charge of America’s public lands,” says Jennifer Rokala, executive director at the Center for Western Priorities. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum just issued an order ceding oversight of the Department of the Interior to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (which is not a government department at all)…”

The ruse is – of course – that our protected public lands, our national parks, are nothing more than waste, abuse and fraud. To the fundamentally greedy and terminally myopic, they are resources ripe and ready for exploitation. Destroying them, so the marketing spin goes, will not only save the nation money, it will make lots of money for the privileged few. And then there will be trickle down! (insert eye roll here).

Dollars. No sense.

“Project 2025 is a ‘wish list’ for the oil and gas and mining industries and private developers. It promotes opening up more of our federal land to energy development, rolling back protections on federal lands, and selling off more land to private developers.” ~ Heather Cox Richardson, Letters From An American, April 22, 2025

It is shortsighted hubris akin to the Taliban’s destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Two monumental statues carved in the 6th century in the Bamiyan valley in Afghanistan, a holy site for Buddhists, a cultural treasure for the people of Afghanistan, a UNESCO World Heritage site, destroyed [by the Taliban] in 2001, “..so that no one can worship or respect them in the future” Fundamentalists. Nationalists. Ideologues.

Islamic or Christian, nationalist fundamentalism, rigid ideology, leads to the same end. Purblind action, senseless destruction for short-term gain. Violence enacted on people and culture. Suppression of the many so the few might profit.

Purblind (adjective): having impaired or defective vision. Slow or unable to understand. Dimwitted.

Like the Buddhas of Bamiyan, once destroyed, our public lands, our Grand Canyon and Arches and Bears Ears, our old growth forests, our Yosemite and Yellowstone and Glacier National Park and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, our protected ocean shelf ecosystem…once mined and drilled and developed, will never come back. Our national inheritance, sacred sites, reduced to rubble for profit so that no one can worship or respect them in the future.

Wisdom is the province of the ancient oak, borne of an acorn of understanding that grows beyond knowledge, beyond information, and far beyond the accumulation of data. It cannot be attained through fundamentalism nor through righteous nationalism wrapped in greasy paper-thin religiosity. It cannot be bought or sold or legislated. Wisdom transcends passing ideology since it takes time and perspective. Wisdom is an open hand, not a tight fist.

It takes no time and requires little in the way of perspective to recognize that the destruction of the sacred in the name of private gain is nothing more or less than the avarice of the purblind, the action of the profoundly dimwitted.

Kerri’s albums are available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora (among others)

read Kerri’s blogpost about the OAK TREE

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Filed under: KS Friday, Metaphor, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, Buddhas of Bamiyan, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, fascism, fundamentalism, Heather Cox Richardson, ideology, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, National Parks, Project 2025, Public lands, Purblind, story, studio melange, Taliban, the melange, wisdom | 1 Comment »

A Moral Center [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on November 4, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

I was grateful for the meme. It gave me simple language, a shorthand, for something I was wrestling to articulate: We are not having a difference of opinion. We are having a difference of morality.

I wonder that it took a meme to open my eyes. This in not about information bubbles or dueling points-of-view or fact-checked-information.

We are on the eve of an election. This election is unlike any other in our lives. The choice before us eclipses policy differences. On the ballot is democracy or not-democracy. A constitutional republic or an autocracy.

The maga-candidate sows division, darkness and grievance. He is a pathological liar. He is obsessed with retribution. He vows to use the military to silence “the enemy within”. He promises to arrest his opponents. Last week he suggested a firing squad for Liz Cheney. In a multicultural nation, a nation of immigrants, he promises mass deportations.

This is not empty rhetoric. As we’ve learned from his overthrow of Roe, he will do what he says. He has a Heritage Foundation plan called Project 2025 to dismantle our democracy. He disavowed it when public knowledge of his embrace of this extreme fascist blueprint hurt his chances for election. It is his milksop pattern: by pretending he has no knowledge he abdicates responsibility for his words and actions. It is a damning statement of his lack of character. It is a characteristic of an authoritarian narcissist.

What is also a damning statement of character is to vote for such a man. To turn a blind eye to all that he has said, all that he has done, all the lies that he has told, is a statement of our character.

Presidential historian Jon Meacham recently reminded us that within the spirit of the Constitution lives the character of our leaders – and also the character of the led. Our national character. “Out of many, one” is more than a quaint Latin phrase printed on our currency.

A character check: compare the maga-candidate’s daily mantra, “I have no knowledge” with the sign Harry S. Truman proudly displayed on the resolute desk: The buck stops here.

A vote for the maga-candidate is literally a vote to suspend the Constitution (his words). It is a vote to suspend our national character. It is a vote absent of a moral center.

We choose our leaders as a reflection of ourselves. It is why this election is unlike any other in our lives. The image the maga-candidate reflects back to us is at best repugnant. It is empty of character. It is the opposite of our nation’s identity.

If you see yourself in this man, a misogynist, xenophobe, racist, filled with rage and retribution…we are having something much more profound, much more serious than a difference of opinion.

We have a difference of morality.

Decency matters. Conduct matters. Language matters. Character matters. Principles matter. Intentions matter. Discerning the difference between right and wrong, between good and bad behavior, matters.

It’s the spirit living in our Constitution. It’s the character our leaders ought to reflect back to us because it’s the character we should demand from our leaders.

And so we vote.

Democracy or not-democracy.

Will we live and act from a moral center, striving to fulfill the promise of a more perfect union, or will we throw it away and spiral into a fascist void?

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE ELECTION OF OUR LIVES

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Filed under: Edges, Identity, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, character, Constitution, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, decency, democracy, discernment, division, e pluribus unum, Harry S. Truman, Jon Meacham, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Liz Cheney, moral center, moral compass, morality, principles, Project 2025, story, studio melange, The buck stops here, The Constitution of The United States, the melange, unity, vote | 1 Comment »

One Basic Choice [David’s blog on saturday morning smack-dab]

Posted on November 2, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

I heard this phrase this morning: supra partisan. Transcending party. I heard the “supra partisan” phrase relative to 400 historians – of all political backgrounds and stripes – endorsing Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Their message: the urgency of the moment requires all of us to transcend party and vote for country. We’ve not seen a threat to our existence as a democracy like this since 1860.

Their statement is not hyperbole. The threat posed to our democracy by maga and their aspiring dictator is undeniable. It is historic. It is on our doorstep.

In maga-land, the patterns and lessons of history are threatening precisely because they reveal maga as a fascist movement. It is the reason that their Project 2025 blueprint includes the elimination of the Department of Education. Currently, they are banning books and waging a war on the nation’s libraries. They desire a willing and ignorant citizenry who will without question give over their rights – give over their minds – and follow the lies and whims of the great leader. No debate. No opposition. No questioning. No choice. No thinking. No voice.

No freedom.

A familiar quote comes to mind:

“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” ~ George Santayana

This election should be a no-brainer but, alas, it is not. On Tuesday we will demonstrate that a majority of us have paid attention, learned from history, and vote to preserve our democracy. Or, that a majority of us chooses to ignore history and willingly, intentionally, vote to goose-step into the well-worn and well-known fascist horror story.

It all boils down to one very basic choice.

read Kerri’s blogpost about ONE CHOICE

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Filed under: smack-dab | Tagged: artistry, choice, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, debate, democracy, education, election, fascism, George Bernard Shaw, George Santayana, historians, history, ignorance, Kamala Harris, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, libraries, MAGA, Opposition, Project 2025, rights, story, studio melange, supra partisan, the melange, Tim Walz, vote | Leave a comment »

Climb The Stairs [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on October 29, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

It was a rare treat to climb the stairs to the rooftop deck and gaze into the night sky, unobstructed by city lights. Years ago I worked with kids in Los Angeles, teenagers, who had never seen the stars. Standing on the roof, overwhelmed by the Milky Way, I thought about those children, now well into their adulthood, and hoped that they had, at long last, found a way to peer into the endless universe.

What else might adequately provide them the understanding of the impossibility of their existence, the enormity of their lives? What else might open their eyes and hearts to the necessity of community, the recognition that their lives only have meaning relative to the people who share this planet and this moment-in-time with them? Relationship is purpose.

We have seven days. In biblical terms that’s how long it took the metaphoric god to differentiate light from dark, land from sea, moon from sun, animals from humans. Rest from work. Humanity’s role in this story of creation is to appreciate the enormity of their unlikely existence. To steward. To name. To discern between merit and the meritless, between truth and lie. To distinguish good intention from ill-intention.

We have seven days until we vote. Although we might pretend this is normal, this election is like no other in our lifetimes. The issues have taken a back seat to the question of our existence as a democracy. We are determining whether or not we are still capable of distinguishing truth from lie, whether or not we are willing to toss away our freedoms and replace them with authoritarian rage, whether or not we will serve the needs of the greater community or the power-lust of an individual.

Seven days. We will either step forward as champions of light and truth or we will turn our backs on what we know to be true and fall backwards into the dark fascist promises of Project 2025.

Under the stars we have a choice: to continue our quest to realize the dream of a more perfect union, with liberty and justice for all – or to exchange our constitution for the autocratic craving of an angry despot. To honestly name what we know to be true.

There’s still time to climb the stairs, peer into the starry sky, and realize the power of our choices, what is at stake in this, our time, our moment.

read Kerri’s blogpost about STARS

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Filed under: Identity, Metaphor, Perspective, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: artistry, autocrat, choice, choices, community, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, exclusion, existence, inclusion, justice, Kamala Harris, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, liberty, lie, Project 2025, relationship, stars, story, studio melange, the melange, The Milky Way, truth | 1 Comment »

Responsible Opposition [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on August 9, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

Among the many things our city does well is the design and maintenance of the gardens in the parks. Colorful and well-tended, carefully planned beds of flowers. My favorite plots juxtapose vibrant, tender petals that surround sturdy broad red banana trees. The beauty found in opposition. Contrast.

Horatio said that he was worried for the democrats. “They have no responsible opposition,” he said. The operative word in his sentiment is “responsible.” As we all know, there is no lack of opposition yet the former GOP has lapsed into a low-bar, name-calling, opposition-for-opposition-sake; it stunts the growth for all involved. It’s the Achilles Heel of the red-hat-cult. When opposition is the end-goal there is no need for ideas or solutions, no service to a greater good, no vision for the future. There is no ethic. There is no lie-too-far to resurrect some made-up-past-glory-fantasy. Opposition-for-opposition sake has only one aim: to attain and keep power.

And then what?

Maintaining power-for-the-sake-of-power is a well-known path worn into history by the likes of Stalin and Hitler. Pol Pot. Mussolini. Putin. Kim Jung Un. The path ultimately – and always – leads to the killing fields. Absolute power is never a worthy or sustainable reason-for-governing and always, in the end, eats its own people. Opposition-for-the-sake-of-opposition, once in power, eliminates by any means all other points-of-view. It silences any voice of responsible opposition. Read Project 2025 for a step-by-step blueprint on how to reduce a two-party democratic republic into a single party authoritarian state.

A healthy two-party system – democracy – is designed to bring opposing ideas to the table for debate and discussion. The point is not opposition. The point is agreement. Compromise in service to the greater good. Checks and balances. The point, at its best, is like the gardens I so appreciate, vibrant juxtaposition, carefully planned and respectfully maintained.

Democracy is made beautiful through responsible opposition. It’s a two-party system. Democracy disappears without it.

Our garden needs tending, a task for which we are all responsible. Our garden already has a great plan. It’s called The Constitution. Opposition-for-the-sake-of-opposition is like an invasive weed. This red-hat-weed will not just go away. It’s our job – all of us – to act, to call it out, to vote, to make certain the weed is pulled for good (pulled for the public good) and that the two party system, with an ethical GOP, dedicated to the rigorous and worthy task of finding agreement through responsible opposition, is restored to the service of our greater garden.

Kerri’s albums are available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora and iHeart Radio

read Kerri’s blog about RED BANANA TREES

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Filed under: KS Friday, Metaphor, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, authoritarian, contrast, contrast principle, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, democrats, garden, GOP, Hitler, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Kim Jung Un, MAGA, Mussolini, Opposition, personal responsibility, Pol Pot, power, Project 2025, Putin, responsibility, Stalin, story, studio melange, the melange, vote | 1 Comment »

Dear Momma [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on July 15, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

Dear Momma,

I was awake most of the night thinking about our phone conversation. Something was troubling me and as I lay awake I realized what it was – so I want to share a few of my midnight thoughts with you. [It is important enough that I decided to change my post for today – something concerning crowns.]

It’s best to begin at the beginning. During our call we shared two sentiments on which we are in total agreement: 1) we are afraid for the survival of our nation and 2) we think the country deserves different candidates on both sides. Since we sit on opposite sides of the political divide, I was taken aback that you had not heard of Project 2025, that you had no idea what I was talking about. That was the seed of what troubled me through the night. I wondered how something so present in my information and news streams (and conversations) was so absent in yours.

So, I need to take a step back and offer some context for what’s troubling me:

Social media is ‘smart’ – which means it ‘learns you’ – it responds to your preferences by feeding you more and more of what you like. That’s a terrific thing if you are shopping for shoes or like to see cute puppy videos. It’s a terrible thing if you want to be informed about what’s going on in the world. Your stream is fed by what you like, not by what is factual or by what may offer a differing point of view. It encases us in bubbles of agreement, in tribes of likemindedness, and we confuse shared opinion with fact or truth or what we used to call news.

Television news operates on the same principle. It’s driven by ratings – another word for ‘likes.’ As a nation we no longer seek news for its veracity, we tune in to the sources that report what we “like’ and opinions with which we agree – and disparage the sources with which we don’t agree. If you think about it, news based on agreement is, in fact, not news at all. It is entertainment meant to keep you hooked, to garner likes. It is a recipe for disaster. That is why you’ve not heard of Project 2025. Inside your bubble, you would not like what it portends. Click on the link I provided and you can read it for yourself (and, since I know you won’t – it is too long – I offer this link to a Wikipedia summary. You can also Google summaries but remember, Google will sort to what you like – so I offer this 6 minute summary from the PBS News Hour for you to watch).

Since it is not my intention to lobby for one team or the other (to change your mind – I know that is a fool’s errand) – and I know PBS is generally vilified by folks inside your bubble, I want to give you two tools or suggestions that will, if you use them, make you capable of reaching beyond the prison of ‘likes’ and check things for yourself:

First, check your media sources. Here’s an example. This is a media bias chart. It rates all media according to left/right bias and fact/propaganda reliability. Note that PBS News is high on fact reliability and in the center so is mostly without intentional bias. Fox News, on the other hand, is strong right and barely above the propaganda line. Here’s an article on media bias charts if you want to know more about them.

Second, check the truth of what you are being fed. We use Snopes.com almost every day. It’s easy to use and you simply need to type in a question and will get the latest fact-checked information. Here’s an example of a question I asked – for you to see.

Like you, I am afraid for the survival of our nation and, as we discussed, it hinges on the choice we make this coming November. In a free nation we are fortunate to go to the polls and vote for our choice. I believe with all my heart that it is not enough to go to the polls and vote based on opinion, driven by our ‘likes.’ We have the obligation – if we are truly afraid (and I am) – to reach beyond the thick wall of our bubbles, ask questions, verify answers, and find out exactly what and who we are voting for.

During our call you wondered how our nation has become so divided and politically antagonistic. It’s a great question for your community’s Situation Room conversations. My belief is that we are too comfortable inside our bubbles – agreement is easy when in a room of like-minds and easy agreement is made easier when the opposing point of view is understood as the enemy. The antidote for our divide is simple but requires us – all of us – to cease living inside our lazy bubble-reactions. Each-and-everyday, we need to take the few minutes required to check the truth of what we are being fed. To stop running our affairs on likes and easy agreement – and seek substantial truth regardless of whether or not we like it or our friends agree with it. In that direction we’ll find middle ground, compromise, and the road to a healthy national – and local – dialogue.

I love you. Thanks for considering my late night thoughts.

David

read Kerri’s blogpost about CROWNS